GitLab Pages vs Netlify

Overview

Netlify

Stacks3.6K

Followers2.1K

Votes207

GitLab Pages

Stacks246

Followers295

Votes11

GitLab Pages vs Netlify: What are the differences?

Introduction

GitLab Pages and Netlify are both website deployment platforms that offer hosting services for static websites. While they share some similarities, there are key differences between the two. Below are six key differences between GitLab Pages and Netlify.

Hosting Platform: GitLab Pages is specifically designed for hosting websites that are connected to GitLab repositories. It is seamlessly integrated into the GitLab workflow, allowing developers to easily publish and update their websites directly from their repositories. On the other hand, Netlify is a standalone hosting platform that can be used with any Git provider or even without Git. It offers more flexibility in terms of source control and can be easily integrated with various Git services.
Build and Deployment Process: In GitLab Pages, the build and deployment process is managed using GitLab CI/CD pipelines. Developers can define custom build scripts using Docker containers or predefined templates to automatically build and deploy their websites whenever changes are pushed to the repository. Netlify, on the other hand, simplifies the build and deployment process by automatically detecting changes in the project repository and triggering the build process. It also provides a visual interface to configure build settings without requiring any specific knowledge of CI/CD pipelines.
Custom Domain Support: Both GitLab Pages and Netlify support custom domains for websites. However, Netlify provides more advanced options for managing custom domains. It offers features like domain aliases, redirects, and HTTPS certificates for custom domains, making it easier to configure and manage domain settings.
Branch-based Deployments: GitLab Pages allows developers to configure different branches of their repository to be deployed to separate websites. This means that each branch can have its own website URL and content, allowing for easy testing and previewing of changes before merging them into the main branch. Netlify also supports branch-based deployments, allowing developers to create separate previews for each branch. However, this feature is only available in their paid plans.
Forms and Serverless Functions: Netlify provides built-in support for serverless functions and form handling. Developers can easily create serverless functions using JavaScript, Go, Ruby, or Python, and integrate them with their website. Netlify Forms allows developers to collect form submissions directly on their website without requiring any server-side code. GitLab Pages does not provide built-in support for serverless functions or form handling, although these features can still be implemented using external services or custom server-side code.
Pricing and Billing: GitLab Pages is a free feature included in every GitLab account, with no additional cost for hosting static websites. On the other hand, Netlify offers both free and paid plans. Their free plan includes generous limits, while paid plans provide additional features and higher performance options. Pricing for custom domains and other advanced features may vary between the two platforms.

In Summary, GitLab Pages is tightly integrated with GitLab repositories and provides advanced branch-based deployments, while Netlify offers more flexibility in terms of source control and provides advanced features like form handling and serverless functions. Both platforms support custom domains, but Netlify offers more advanced options for managing domain settings. Netlify also provides a visual interface for configuring build settings and simplifies the build and deployment process.

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Advice on Netlify, GitLab Pages

Howie

Full Stack Engineer at Yintrust

Aug 13, 2020

Decidedon

Netlify

We use Netlify to host static websites.

The reasons for choosing Netlify over GitHub Pages are as follows:

Netfily can bind multiple domain names, while GitHub Pages can only bind one domain name
With Netfily, the original repository can be private, while GitHub Pages free tier requires the original repository to be public

In addition, in order to use CDN, we use Netlify DNS.

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Comments

Detailed Comparison

Netlify	GitLab Pages
Netlify is smart enough to process your site and make sure all assets gets optimized and served with perfect caching-headers from a cookie-less domain. We make sure your HTML is served straight from our CDN edge nodes without any round-trip to our backend servers and are the only ones to give you instant cache invalidation when you push a new deploy. Netlify is also the only static hosting service with integrated continuous deployment.	Host your static websites on GitLab.com for free, or on your own GitLab Enterprise Edition instance. Use any static website generator: Jekyll, Middleman, Hexo, Hugo, Pelican, and more
Global Network;Global Network;Instant Cache Validation;Atomic Deploys;API proxying;SSL for custom domains;Continuous Deployment;Link to Github or Bitbucket	-
Statistics
Stacks 3.6K	Stacks 246
Followers 2.1K	Followers 295
Votes 207	Votes 11
Pros & Cons
Pros 48 Easy deploy 43 Fastest static hosting and continuous deployments 23 Super simple deploys 23 Free SSL support 16 Easy Setup and Continous deployments Cons 7 It's expensive 1 Bandwidth limitation	Pros 5 Free 4 Integrated build and release pipeline 2 Allows any custom build scripts and plugins Cons 1 Require Jekyll approach 0 Slow builds
Integrations
GitHub Bitbucket	GitLab Jekyll Hugo Middleman Hexo Brunch Octopress Pelican

What are some alternatives to Netlify, GitLab Pages?

GitHub Pages

Public webpages hosted directly from your GitHub repository. Just edit, push, and your changes are live.

DomainRacer

It is a blazing fast hosting solution that provides Customer Satisfaction driven Web Hosting services since 2016.

Vercel

A cloud platform for serverless deployment. It enables developers to host websites and web services that deploy instantly, scale automatically, and require no supervision, all with minimal configuration.

Surge

Surge makes it easy for developers to deploy projects to a production-quality CDN through Grunt, Gulp, npm.

Webflow

Webflow is a responsive design tool that lets you design, build, and publish websites in an intuitive interface. Clean code included!

Divshot

Divshot makes building and hosting front-end web applications simple. Build locally and deploy using a simple command-line interface. Divshot supports multiple environments, pushState routing, atomic deploys, and more.

Firebase Hosting

It is production-grade web content hosting for developers. With a single command, you can quickly deploy web apps and serve both static and dynamic content to a global CDN (content delivery network). You can also pair it with Cloud Functions or Cloud Run to build and host microservices.

Runkod

It provides decentralized hosting platform and management tools for modern javascript applications and static web publishing.

BitBalloon

BitBalloon deploys static sites from development to production in one step. Sites are automatically compressed, cached and pushed to a CDN. Any forms on the site will automatically work. BitBalloon is 100% programmable, everything from deployment to form handling can be controlled through the API. White label reseller options are available for using BitBalloon as a site publishing engine inside 3rd party authoring tools.

Spigot

It is home to the community behind the biggest Minecraft server software projects and provides a place for everyone involved with Minecraft servers to connect with each other whether they seeking help and support or sharing and showcasing their work. We provide a web forum, chat room and wiki for providing support as well as project hosting for content creators and hope that you too will become involved in this extensive and growing community of more than 300,000 members.

Related Comparisons

GitLab Pages vs Netlify: What are the differences?

Introduction

Hosting Platform: GitLab Pages is specifically designed for hosting websites that are connected to GitLab repositories. It is seamlessly integrated into the GitLab workflow, allowing developers to easily publish and update their websites directly from their repositories. On the other hand, Netlify is a standalone hosting platform that can be used with any Git provider or even without Git. It offers more flexibility in terms of source control and can be easily integrated with various Git services.
Build and Deployment Process: In GitLab Pages, the build and deployment process is managed using GitLab CI/CD pipelines. Developers can define custom build scripts using Docker containers or predefined templates to automatically build and deploy their websites whenever changes are pushed to the repository. Netlify, on the other hand, simplifies the build and deployment process by automatically detecting changes in the project repository and triggering the build process. It also provides a visual interface to configure build settings without requiring any specific knowledge of CI/CD pipelines.
Custom Domain Support: Both GitLab Pages and Netlify support custom domains for websites. However, Netlify provides more advanced options for managing custom domains. It offers features like domain aliases, redirects, and HTTPS certificates for custom domains, making it easier to configure and manage domain settings.
Branch-based Deployments: GitLab Pages allows developers to configure different branches of their repository to be deployed to separate websites. This means that each branch can have its own website URL and content, allowing for easy testing and previewing of changes before merging them into the main branch. Netlify also supports branch-based deployments, allowing developers to create separate previews for each branch. However, this feature is only available in their paid plans.
Forms and Serverless Functions: Netlify provides built-in support for serverless functions and form handling. Developers can easily create serverless functions using JavaScript, Go, Ruby, or Python, and integrate them with their website. Netlify Forms allows developers to collect form submissions directly on their website without requiring any server-side code. GitLab Pages does not provide built-in support for serverless functions or form handling, although these features can still be implemented using external services or custom server-side code.
Pricing and Billing: GitLab Pages is a free feature included in every GitLab account, with no additional cost for hosting static websites. On the other hand, Netlify offers both free and paid plans. Their free plan includes generous limits, while paid plans provide additional features and higher performance options. Pricing for custom domains and other advanced features may vary between the two platforms.

GitLab Pages vs Netlify

Overview

GitLab Pages vs Netlify: What are the differences?